Fear The Wolves adding berserk wild life to the battle royale genre this August

Other players won’t be your only enemy in Fear The Wolves, which comes to Steam Early Access on July 18, 2018. Set in Chernobyl in an aftermath situation derived from the real life disaster that took place in the Ukraine during 1986 (my birth year, by coincidence) widely regarded as the worst Nuclear accident on the planet (Fukushima might have outdone Chernobyl now though). Adding PvE elements to the battle royale genre and replacing walls with radiation, this game is looking to add its own twist to the largely successful formula many others have failed to penetrate.

Fear The Wolves prides itself on being accurate, direct bullet collision detection. What this means is that there will be no random number generator for damage, well designed hit boxes, high-tech servers with minimal or no lag / latency involved, and proper hit detection for every shot fired. You won’t need to spend time fighting against the game engine. Recoil is said to be dynamic but adaptable. If players get used to a particular weapon, they will be able to handle it, but not precisely predict it.

Wild life can attack you. Gas masks and other gear will enable players to survive longer than others in radiated areas. “Natural landmines” will be one of the hazards to avoid, with heavy adrenaline bursts providing positive and negative effects during the later stages of radiation poisoning.

Vostok Games is developing the title with Focus Home Interactive publishing. Vostok is a Ukraine based studio created in 2012 and was named after the first flight in space made by mankind, with a philosophy of advancing technologies while giving players entertainment that also provides useful life lessons. It should be noted that Vostok also released a game called Survarium in 2015 on Steam Early Access to mixed reviews which still isn’t in its final version yet. That title seems to have had some external business pressures related to the closure of GSC Game World and issues around the game’s relation to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The title was meant to be an MMO but failed to reach that level of player interactivity.

Focus Home Interactive has been around for a long time and curated an entertaining catalog of indie games while growing beyond those expectations with recent projects like Dontnod’s VAMPYR. Perhaps a strong-willed publisher and a fresh start is something that Vostok Games can benefit from, and hopefully Fear The Wolves will honor the benefit of the doubt that its asking players to give.

Closed Beta sign-ups are available now at Fear-The-Wolves.comand Fear The Wolves will eventually make its way to a full release on Steam and gaming consoles during 2019 with player feedback set to help develop the vision and detailed gameplay decisions going forward.